Isn’t it exciting to think about how a coat of fresh paint can beautify your home . . . until it’s time to choose from the countless color options? One of the intimidating questions is whether light or dark paint is better for a particular room. Adeptly applying light and dark paint on the walls of your home can help ensure impressive results. A step-by-step approach can simplify the process of choosing between light and dark interior paint shades.
What Can Go Wrong with Dark or Light Paint?
Acting on various myths about paint colors can lead to disappointment, such as ending up with drab walls. That’s why proven tips like those that follow can help you avoid unfortunate paint choices. Here’s a myth-buster:
- It’s not exactly the size of the room that determines what effect a light or dark paint color will have. Instead, the lighting is the better gauge for determining where to paint with a pale color and where to go a bit darker.
5 Steps for Deciding on Light or Dark Paint in a Tonal Color Scheme
A fail-proof approach to choosing dark or light paint colors for a room is to go with a tonal or monochromatic color scheme. With this kind of palette, you can be fully confident that the colors you choose won’t clash.
Start with a Color Family
Approach your task one room at a time. Using a color wheel, select the color family you want for those particular walls. Various kinds of color wheels are available, which means that this step can potentially be confusing. Right at the start of the process, you may decide to contact professional painters like those at Franklin Painting. Many projects at Franklin qualify to receive a complimentary 90-minute color consultation with their staff colorist. The colorist will have a color wheel and will know how to use it!
Once you’ve chosen a color family, choose one of the palest shades and two medium shades. Note: Coordinating dark shades will work best as accent colors in the rooms’ accessories and upholstery.
Assess the Natural Light
Determine whether the room is naturally dark or whether it gets a lot of light. For naturally dark rooms, select the darkest of your medium paint colors as the primary wall color. In a bright room, the palest shade should be the primary wall color.
Choose Opposites for Trim, etc.
If the wall color is the pale shade in your color family, the darker of the two mediums should be used for painting window frames, door frames, and baseboards. If the darker of the medium paint colors is on the walls, paint the trim in the palest shade.
What About the Middle Color?
The middle paint color that you have left can heighten a three-dimensional effect in your room. Paint molding on walls the medium shade, including chair rails and wainscoting.
Ceiling Colors
If the room has a high ceiling, paint the ceiling one shade darker than the wall color. For ceilings of average height, the ceiling color should be a tad lighter than the walls.
Call Franklin Painting Today
Contact the painting professionals at Franklin Painting for worry-free exterior and interior painting. Help with choosing between light and dark paint will be provided, along with expert workmanship. Call us today!
Franklin Painting
877.646.7774
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Frank Campanelli, the esteemed founder of Franklin Painting LLC, has been leading the company since 1986. He takes immense pride in the stellar reputation his dedicated team has built by consistently delivering top-notch service to each customer.
